FORMER Caribbean Under-21 champion Shemar Britton and his junior partner Yeudistir Persaud were crowned champions of the Senior Partners with Juniors Table Tennis Team tournament on Sunday night at Malteenoes Sports Club, in Georgetown.

Britton, who is one of the organisers of the event, was able to lead his team to a 3-1 win against the other organiser, senior national player Joel Alleyne and Caribbean U-13 Boys bronze medallist Colin Wong.

Eighteen players (nine juniors and nine seniors) competed in the two-day event, which started on Saturday evening with the round robin clashes.

Emerging from the preliminaries were the teams of Alleyne/Wong and Britton/Persaud who finished first and second in Group A and Christopher Franklin/Thuraia Thomas and Warren Hackshaw/Isaiah Layne from Group B.

Although the final was competitive, the tester for the eventual winners was their semi-final clash against Group B winners Franklyn and U-18 female champion Thomas.

That battle proved eventful with its highpoint being a grudge match between the best two current male table tennis players in the game.

The younger Britton, who had only faced the experienced Franklin once before in a tournament (last year’s nationals, where he lost after leading by two games to nil) had an amazing year in Trinidad where he is studying.   The 21-year-old, who won the Trinbago Men’s Open title in October, had loads of playing time with some strong players, but although Franklin has had a relatively quiet season, his tactical approach to the game was superior.

The national champion opened with an 11-9 win before Britton stormed back to an 11-7 win. Both players employed backspins and countered well with excellently placed shots.

Britton preferred to play faster, while Franklin countered by slowing down the game and mixing his shots well, but although he won the third clash 11-7, Britton was too good on the day and fought back to win the last two games 11-8, 11-8.

Earlier Franklin and Thomas had lost the doubles (8-11, 7-11, 11-13), while Britton eased past Thomas 11-5, 11-7, 11-6 before Franklin pulled a game back with a 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-4) win against Persaud.

In the other semi-finals, Alleyne and Wong had made light work of the pair of Hackshaw and Layne with a comprehensive win.

In the doubles, Alleyne and Wong won 11-8, 13-11, 11-5, while Alleyne beat Hackshaw 11-3, 11-5, 11-6 in the seniors battle, before Wong got the better of Layne 3-1 (11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8) in the junior battle.

Although they had defeated Britton and Persaud 3-2, in the preliminary round. Alleyne and Wong could not replicate the feat against their opponents in the final.

Britton and Persaud raced to a 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-7) win in the doubles, which gave them a critical advantage for the rest of the game.  Alleyne then drew the game even with a 3-1 (7-11, 11-3, 11-8, 15-13) win against Persaud. Britton, though, took control to win the final two games. He first defeated the talented Wong 11-8, 11-9, 12-10, before he got past fellow senior national player Alleyne (11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5).